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Technical University of Munich

Sascha Dengler, M.Sc.

Biography

Sascha Dengler earned both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical and Process Engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany. During his studies, he led the propulsion team at the student rocketry association TUDSAT e.V., focusing on developing a bi-liquid rocket engine. He began working on the Water Electrolysis Propulsion (WEP) technology for his master’s thesis in 2021, exploring its application for de-orbiting CubeSats. In 2022, he joined TUM as a doctoral candidate, aiming to demonstrate the highest specific impulse of any chemical storable propulsion system to date by implementing transpiration cooling in WEP thrust chambers.

Research

  • Development of WEP spacecraft thrusters

  • Transpiration cooling of additively manufactured thrust chambers

  • Optimisation of operations (‘ConOps’) using Reinforcement Learning

  • Project Manager of S4I2T

Projects

S4I2T (European Innovation Council)
Within the EIC-funded project “Solar for Ice to Thrust” (S4I2T) TUM and its partners are developing a Water Electrolysis Propulsion system as a cleaner and more efficient alternative to existing in-space propulsion solutions. S4I2T will also demonstrate the re-filling of propellants between CubeSats and it will demonstrate for the worldwide first time the complete end-to-end ISRU technology chain of transforming icy regolith into thrust.

Publications

  • S. Dengler, F. Ebert et al., ‘Water Electrolysis Propulsion in CubeSats: A case study’, presented at SPACE PROPULSION 2022, Estoril, Portugal, 2022.

  • T. Santese et al., ‘Propulsion system testing capabilities at TUM for SpaceTec, the world’s first centre for innovative space propulsion tailored to universities and start-ups’, presented at Ground-Based Space Facilities Symposium 2022, Marseille, France, 2022.

  • S. Dengler, A. Wagmann Y Otero et al., ‘Optimising ConOps of Water Electrolysis Propulsion systems using Deep Q-Learning: A Proof-of-Concept’, presented at the 10TH EUCASS – 9TH CEAS, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2023.

  • S. Dengler, M. Pelivan et al., ‘Evaluation of transpiration cooling for hydrogen/oxygen thrusters in Water Electrolysis Propulsion systems’, presented at SPACE PROPULSION 2024, Glasgow, Scotland, 2024.

  • S. Heizmann, S. Dengler, R. Šeško, A. Smolka, P. Reiss, and C. Manfletti, ‘ICE2THRUST: An End-to-End Demonstration of the In-Situ Resource Utilization of Water for In-Space Propulsion’, presented at SPACE PROPULSION 2024, Glasgow, Scotland, 2024.

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